


Don't Argue With Your Time-Traveling Girlfriend

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: BAMF Hermione Granger, Background Relationships, Canonical Character Death, Death of James and Lily Potter, F/M, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, POV Multiple, Time Skips, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, canonical background pairings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27979479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: Hermione goes back in time to change what she can, but will Sirius accept her help?
Relationships: Sirius Black/Hermione Granger
Comments: 10
Kudos: 124
Collections: Mistletoe Exchange 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [avocadomoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avocadomoon/gifts).



> Thanks to Gaialux for the hand holding!

Sirius was happily flirting with a pretty young bird at the Golden Gryffin when a sharp pain in his ear halted him mid-word. “What in Mer-”

“Sirius Black shut up and come with me right now, you hound,” came an imperious female voice, accompanied by a tug on said captured ear. The vocal tone wasn’t the same as Lily’s, but the attitude was very familiar.

Sirius tried to turn to see his assaulter, but her firm grip meant he was oddly captive. He suppressed a whine from Padfoot. “Now hang on a-”

“Nope, no time. Come _now_ , Padfoot,” she demanded. The use of his nickname froze Sirius’s struggles, as did the smothered laughter from the bird he’d been chatting up.

“Alright, alright, no need to twist my ear off,” he surrendered, picking up his pace. They finally cleared the end of the bar and he was able to partly turn in the wider space. From this angle, he could tell that, like the voice, he didn’t recognize the bird herself. Not that he didn’t like what he saw: petite, curly honey-brown hair, small dusting of freckles across her nose. “I don’t even kn-”

She quickly dug her nails into his ear in warning. “Ow! Ow ow ow ow!” he whined.

“I know you don’t know what you did wrong, Sirius,” she misinterpreted. “Now shut up and _heel_.”

This further confirmation that she knew about his animagus form kept Sirius from complaining, and he dutifully _heeled_. Maybe this was Lily using polyjuice or something? Or a glamour? The attitude was certainly the same.

Finally they made it outside the pub and around the corner to the village graveyard. “In,” she said, releasing his ear and all but tossing him through the rusty gates. She was deceptively strong, for all that she only came up to his nose.

Sirius rubbed his ear gingerly, but preceded her into the graveyard. Once they were a little ways in, where no one could possibly overhear, Sirius stopped and crossed his arms. “Alright, I played along. Now what’s this-”

Once again she interrupted him. “You don’t know me yet, Sirius, but you will. What do you know about Burke’s Laws of Temporal Travel Paradoxes?”

“Uh… Temporal...?”

“Time travel,” she explained.

“Err… don’t shag your grandmum and become your own grandfather?” was all Sirius could think of.

She huffed. “You didn’t pay attention at all in Arithmancy, did you?”

“I got an O!” Sirius protested, which did not seem to impress her.

“Burke’s First Law,” she informed him sharply, “is that there are temporal moments in time that cannot be changed. One of them, for example, is the birth of Voldemort. I could attempt to go back repeatedly and stop him from being born, or kill him before he was out of nappies, but the laws of time and magic herself would stop me. Understand?”

That made sense to Sirius, obviously in a world where time travel existed, there had to be some kind of limit like that, or Dark Lords would never happen in the first place. “Alright.”

“Now, what this means is that, if you have access to time travel, there are things that you _can not change_ , no matter how much you want to. Even if it means your own mum would die, or your brother or best mate. If you tried, you would fail, and something even _worse_ might happen in the process, understand?”

“Got it,” Sirius nodded.

“Then, Sirius, it’s time I told you: my name is Hermione Granger, and I will meet you for the first time in 1994. I’m here to tell you that, in three hours, James and Lily Potter will die, and _there’s nothing you can do about it_.


	2. Chapter 2

Once Sirius had calmed down, Hermione finally thought it safe enough to release his full body bind. She had reminded him a few times that this was a _law of time and magic_ , but it wasn’t until she mentioned that any interference might also mean the death of his godson Harry that Sirius finally started to listen.

“Why would you even tell me this?” he finally growled tiredly.

“Because there is something very important that you need to do in the minutes after their deaths, and I needed you to get past this tantrum first.”

“Tantrum?” his anger flared again. “I’d like to see how well you’d react to this kind of news!”

“I handled it a good sight better,” Hermione snapped. “But I shouldn’t be surprised. Like godfather, like godson, apparently. At least if you’d raised him I’d understand where the likeness came from.” she muttered the last. Harry had always been a bit melodramatic; at least he had the pressure of being the boy-who-lived and all the crap he went through at Hogwarts to justify his moodiness.

Seeing that Sirius was just staring at her, Hermione sighed. “Look, we don’t have a lot of time. Are you going to run off now and make things worse, or are you going to listen and help me change the things we _can_?”

“I’m listening,” Sirius frowned.

“Good. Now, as I said, we can’t prevent the death of the Potters. What we _can_ do, is prevent the other miscarriages of justice that are going to happen between tonight and the third. Time travellers are supposed to use subtlety for these things, but I’m a crap liar, so we’re going with bluntness, and for that I need you.” Hermione stared at him levelly. She had never been sure if the mature, halfway-responsible Sirius she had spoken to in Grimauld was a product of Azkaban, or if she would be able to find glimpses of him in the youthful hothead from the stories.

“I’m listening,” Sirius said more calmly.

“Right. Now, in my timeline, you figured out that Peter wasn’t home after you got a bad gut feeling. You came here to Godric’s Hollow too late, and let Hagrid take Harry, as you were too intent on hunting down Peter. Because of this single-mindedness, Harry was sent to the Dursleys to be raised-”

Sirius scowled, and Hermione knew that Lily had told him stories about Petunia.

“And believe me, that was a worse experience than you’re imagining. The second problem was that on November third, Peter got the drop on you, set you up to take the fall, and you spent the next twelve years in Azkaban. Other bad shit happened that we’re also going to prevent, like the attack on the Longbottoms on the second, but the first steps need you prepared _now_.”

“What can I do?” Sirius asked, completely serious - pun absolutely intended - now. 

Hermione began ticking off the plan on her fingers. “When you get to Peter’s house tonight, you’re going to use his floo to call the aurors and send them to Godric’s Hollow, ‘just in case’. Then you’re going to send a Patronus message to as many of the Order as you can. Moody, the Prewett twins, Shacklebolt, and Samson, at the least. Robards, Jones, and Billie and Maurice Bell too, if you can cast that many. Send all of them to Godric’s Hollow, and tell all of them, including the aurors, about Wormtail’s form.”

“You want him caught at the scene,” Sirius mused.

“I do. I want dozens of witnesses to know his secret, and know that he’s responsible for the death of the Potters, long before you’re able to confront him. I want _them_ to confront him while you take care of Harry. I’d have you alert Remus, too, if it wasn’t the full moon tonight.”

“You know-”

“I’m from the future, asume I know everything,” Hermione snapped. They didn’t have a lot of time, and once things kicked off, she would have to be careful of what she said around people - especially Dumbledore. For that, she would actually need Sirius’s help; based on her experience with the Weasley twins, there was no way the Marauders could have been as good at pranking as they were - not to mention becoming illegal animagi as teens - if they weren’t a good sight better at lying and misdirecting than she was.

“Now, that should hopefully take care of Peter, and keep you out of Azkaban,” she continued. “Dumbledore is going to want to keep Harry from you, for reasons I don’t need to get into yet. Without you running away tonight and then getting yourself tossed into Azkaban, he’ll need to find another way. You need to already have collected Harry and taken him somewhere safe. It’s far easier to keep Dumbledore out than to find a Harry he’s hidden. He does know the fidelius charm, after all.”

“Wait, Dumbledore is the one who cast the spell - he knows that Peter is the Secret Keeper!” Sirius realized.

“And yet, he lets you go to prison for the Potters’ murder, because you’re inconvenient to his plans,” Hermione hated to disillusion him - she’d hated having her own illusions of the Headmaster shattered, but it had to be done. “This is why you aren’t involving him in the hunt for Peter. Once you collect Harry, you’ll need to take him to Augusta Longbottom so that she can get us into where Alice and Frank are hiding. Dumbledore will find it much harder to fight against both of Harry’s godparents, and Augusta is a political powerhouse.”

“You said they would be attacked too,” Sirius pointed out. “Why would I take Harry someplace I know the Death Eaters are going to attack?”

“Two reasons,” Hermione said. “Depending on the outcome of tonight. There’s a remote chance that plan Longbottom-A will work, but if not, Longbottom-B will see the two of us and Augusta with Frank and Alice. Then, instead of it being 4-on-2, it’ll be 4-on-5. The good guys will outnumber the Death Eaters and also know that they’re coming.”

“Well that does sound good, as plan Bs go,” Sirius admitted. “But what’s A?”

“If you’re fast enough tonight, you might just get Moody or Crouch here in time to catch Snape in his full Death Eater regalia at the site of the murder scene. If they arrest him before Dumbledore can interfere, the Headmaster won’t be able to use Snape to point Bellatrix at the Longbottoms.”

An evil grin lit Sirius’s face; one Hermione was perfectly willing to share. “You never said we’d get to stick it to Snivellous too!” he said gleefully. “I’m in.”


	3. Chapter 3

To Hermione’s pleased surprise, Sirius was strong enough to cast the patronus messenger spell almost a dozen times, summoning the best fighters in the Order as well as two squads of aurors. Hermione had spent the half hour he was occupied with that working on her own task. First, she lay a series of hastily-prepared runestones around the perimeter of Godric’s Hollow. As soon as her watch ticked over to the correct time gleaned from Harry's memories, she activated the runes, throwing up a temporary animagus containment ward.

It was too draining to hold for long, or to cast the two-way version over the entire town. Not that she wanted to prevent Sirius or any of their backup from entering the two-way’s perimeter anyway, but this should keep the rat from escaping. It might even hamper Snape, if Harry's hunch about him proved correct. It would mean she lost their bet - not that she could ever pay him now - but for the chance to capture Snape she'd admit to being wrong this once.

Alerts sent and wards raised, Hermione raced back to Sirius’s side, ready to play the helpful girlfriend. It was something Sirius had been a little hesitant about, until Hermione asked him to come up with another reason for her presence here tonight, or a way to get her access to the Longbottoms to explain things to them.

After giving him several moments to gape in shock, and then several more to consider alternatives, she poked him and said. “Now pick a pet name or I’m calling you kitten.”

Instantly his look of concentration was replaced by one of horror.

Finally, though, the plans had come together, and from the sounds of the Apparition pops, their backup was arriving. Hermione and Sirius hurried out of the shadows at the village Apparition point, Hermione clinging to her “Hon.”

The first squad of aurors had arrived, as had Hestia and the Prewett twins. Moody was a heartbeat behind Sirius and Hermione, and the young Bell couple arrived before the terse greetings were finished.

“We got yer message, lad, now what?” Moody growled. Hermione was a little surprised to see that, though he was using his false eye, he appeared not to have lost his leg yet. She then mentally smacked herself. She knew that Moody’s amputation, and the deaths of the Prewetts had all happened when they brought in the Lestranges. That didn’t happen until mid-November, after the attack on the Longbottoms. She had known that when she requested Sirius summon the twins, but had forgotten when she saw Moody’s matching shoes.

“It might be nothing, but we need to check the Potter’s cottage,” Sirius immediately replied. “I don’t like the fact that their Secret Keeper vanished from his own protected location.”

“If the wards haven’t fallen, none of us will see anything,” Hermione spoke up, “And we’ll know that nothing’s wrong.”

“Lead the way, then,” the head of the Auror squad, according to his insignia, gestured at Sirius. Hestia quickly volunteered to remain behind and pass on the plan to everyone else who arrived.

They were only halfway through town when the explosion rocked the village, causing several in the group to stagger. Hermione and Sirius kept their footing by dint of their looped arms, and picked up the pace. Before they even rounded the corner by the graveyard, the Dark Mark became visible in the distance.

Now, the Aurors sped up, dashing ahead with wands drawn. “Moody?” Sirius asked plaintively.

“I’ll check, lad,” he said, clapping Sirius on the shoulder as he too sped ahead.

Hermione made a questioning noise, and Sirius quietly told her, “With that eye, he can see at a bit of a distance. He’ll be able to identify friendlies and hostiles for the other Aurors.”

“If the Dark Mark is there, it means Peter must have told, doesn’t it?” Hermione asked loudly, doing her best to sound worried and confused.

“Shit,” said one of the Prewetts. They sounded so much like the Weasleys Hermione had known, something like a cross between Bill and Fred and George. “We’ll look around, mate,” he told Sirius.

“And we’ll have Hestia tell the others,” his twin added. With that, they peeled off down a side street on the left, while the Bells took the right. Hermione and Sirius hurried on to the cottage.

When they reached the small lane, they found the cottage, just as Hermione remembered it, if slightly less aged. For Sirius, however, who had only known it whole, it was clearly a shock. He froze, slumping on Hermione’s arm, and she struggled slightly to support his weight. She noticed that the Aurors had surrounded the cottage, but not entered yet. Focusing on the pair at the gate, she realized that they were erecting anti-portkey and -apparition wards: Moody must have seen someone still inside.

Hermione helped Sirius stagger to the older Auror’s side, doing her best to appear shocked in her own right. “The babe’s alive,” Moody murmured when they approached, and Hermione did not have to fake her relief. There had been the slightest chance that her actions in coming back might have prematurely ended Harry’s life, and she couldn’t have her best friend’s death on her conscience.

“James? Lily?” Sirius asked.

He was grasping at straws, Hermione knew. She had already told him that the elder Potters were going to die - _had_ to die - but he would never believe it until he saw it with his own eyes.

“I’m sorry, lad,” Moody said, patting him on the arm.

“Were any of the Death Eaters still here? Peter?” Hermione asked.

“The rat scarpered,” Moody growled, “but there’s one still inside. Once the wards’re up we’ll take him.”

“Good,” Hermione replied firmly, knowing who the Death Eater was, though she couldn't reveal that knowledge to those around her. Snape may have been a spy, but she held no sympathy for him. Her plans for fixing the past involved him being sent to Azkaban for life, at the very least, and she’d duel him herself before letting him set one foot in a classroom where Harry was present. Or Neville, for that matter. They were her surrogate little brothers and she’d protect them as such.

The Aurors had the wards ready quickly then they flooded the destroyed building. Moody was watching them with his magical eye, frowning at first and then grinning in satisfaction at what he saw. This, more than anything, reassured Hermione. If Snape fought back, that would be one more black mark against him. Moody hated Death Eaters, and would rather see them put down hard; if he was grinning like that, Hermione suspected that that was exactly what had happened.

Barely ten minutes later, the Aurors trooped back out of the house. One was carrying a screaming Harry, and Sirius tripped over himself to disentangle his arms from Hermione’s and grab his godson. Hermione saw the fresh cut on his forehead and frowned.

“Do you have a medic? No, we should take him to St. Mungo’s,” she decided. No way in hell would she allow this horcrux to remain inside Harry for longer than she had to.

“I’ve called for Healers,” the Auror assured her, also throwing a glance back at his fellows.

Hermione followed his gaze and saw that one of the Aurors had a bright white field dressing wrapped around his arm. Snape was levitated between two others, and in addition to the manacles on his wrists and ankles, Hermione could also see field dressings on his shoulder and leg. His Mask was off, and in the light of the full moon and the distant streetlights, it was easy to see his facial features.

“Snivellous,” Sirius growled, even as Hermione found herself glaring. She glanced at Sirius and saw him beginning to work himself up.

Putting a calming hand on his arm, she said, “The Aurors have him, Hon. You need to focus on _Harry_ right now.”

At the reminder, Sirius tore his eyes from the captured Death Eater and back to Harry. He had calmed considerably upon finding himself in familiar arms, and the toddler was now hiccuping quietly, face buried in Sirius’ neck.

“We’ll take him home with us, obviously,” Hermione continued. “You’ll need to contact Alice about this, of course, but for now- oh, we’ll need to gather some of his things.” She glanced back at the house. Scavengers had picked the House clean in hours, last time, but the Aurors would hopefully prevent that this time around. Still, Hermione intended to get as many momentos and heirlooms out as possible before that happened.

“Once we’ve cleared it as safe, Ma’am,” the Auror said.

“Oh, yes, of course,” Hermione agreed.

“Sirius!” a loud, familiar voice called from behind them. Just as Hermione and Sirius were starting to turn towards Hagrid, a shout came from the other direction.

“Aurors!”

“Master Auror on site: stand down!” Moody called back. Hermione glanced over and saw that the second squad had arrived from the Apparition point. Hagrid couldn’t apparate and had likely either Floo’d from Hogwarts or taken a portkey that dropped him outside of town.

As Hagrid reached their side and saw Harry in Sirius’ arms, he let out a sob of relief. Before he could speak, another shout broke the silence. “Got ‘im!”

Everyone spun around for a third time, and Hermione saw the Prewett twins approaching with what appeared to be a large metal cage. Had they caught Wormtail? True, it was her plan, but she was having a tiny bit of difficulty believing that it had gone, not just perfectly, but best case scenario in every way. Pettigrew caught at the scene? Snape as well? Dozens of witnesses? Aurors on site before Hagrid? Healers on the way? It was everything she could have hoped for.

Well, she might have hoped to save the Potters, once upon a time, but all of the research she had done to get to this point had driven that impossible dream from her mind. Everything she could have realistically hoped for, though, seemed to have fallen into place.


	4. Chapter 4

"Any questions?" Hermione looked around at the three Longbottoms, who were each staring at her in some degree of shock. Sirius, already knowing her story, was supervising Harry and Neville as they colored on Harry's hospital bed. The healers had removed the soul leach, but were keeping Harry for a week for observation. Snape's arrest meant that it was safe for the Longbottoms to come visit him at St. Mungos, and Hermione had just finished filling them in.

"So you're from the future, and you know how everything will go, but you won't tell us," Frank said slowly.

"Well, I knew how everything would have gone until I changed things." Hermione gently corrected him. "Now I just know the broad strokes, event wise, and things like people's motivations. I don't know what will happen day-to-day."

"I well remember Burke's law from when I studied Arithmancy," Augusta said, "so I understand why you couldn't save the Potters, but wouldn't the attack on Frank and Alice also be unchangeable?"

"You'd think," Hermione said, "But I did the calculations. Neither the attack, nor the hospitalization are immutable. In fact, there are only two such events between now and when I came back, each several years out. I will not tell you what they are until it becomes necessary, but I do have plans for those eventualities."

"So what are we to do in the meantime?" Alice asked.

"Carry on as you would if you didn't know me," Hermione suggested. "If you didn't know anything about the future, you'd just share custody of Harry with Sirius, do your best to raise both boys right, and carry on with your life. There's no reason not to do that now."

"What about Dumbledore?" Augusta asked, frowning. "You said he had plans for the boys; he would have let Sirius go to Azkaban."

"By all means, never trust him," Hermione agreed. "Augusta, in my timeline, you were the Regent Longbottom and a political powerhouse. You will not be regent now, but certainly you could bring that shrewdness and expertise to bear by giving Frank your advice. Sirius too, shortly."

"What?" That was enough to get Sirius' attention.

"Within the next… two? Three? Three or so years, your Grandfather, Arcturus, will pass. He names you as his successor in his will, but with you in Azkaban and Lucius Malfoy having the ear of the Minister, he names his son Draco the heir to the Black seat on the Wizengamot and places himself as Regent. Obviously that second part won't happen this time around, but as Sirius has been all but ignoring politics the last few years, he'll need your advice, Augusta, to get him up to speed. Also, one of you will need to become the Regent for the Potter seat, before Dumbledore puts his own puppet in play; that might be a place to slot in Augusta as well."

"Arcturus could be an ally in this," Augusta mused. "Harry is a Black, through Dorea, and it won't sit well with him that someone is attempting to hurt a member of the Black family."

"I'd be willing to share part of the truth with him as well," Hermione decided after a short bit to think about it. "If anything, he might put more ironclad amendments into his will regarding the line of succession of the House. Of course, if we can keep Lucius and Narcissa from buying their way out of Azkaban when they're caught during the trials, that would also help."

Ignoring the stares of the others at that bombshell, Hermione continued to think aloud. "Actually, I'm not sure if Narcissa was a Death Eater at this point, or only a supporter. She might have gotten the Dark Mark during the second war. If we could ensure that Lucius went to jail, she might be brought back into the Black Family enclave. Then Draco might be raised as a proper Black, instead of an arrogant Malfoy."

"Something like that is more likely to get Arcturus on side than needing to expel them from the family," Augutsa said.

"Well, then when Lucius is revealed, you can check and see. Arcturus can pull rank as the Head of her family to help with that," Hermione agreed. "Last time, since Sirius was already out of the picture, Arcturus made no moves to exclude Draco or his parents, so Lucius traded on that a lot. If Arcturus is in our camp, and can make certain things clear to the Minister, he won't have that ability."

"And where will you be in all this," Alice spoke up. "You can't just appear out of nowhere and insinuate yourself into Pureblood politics, especially if your only reason is that you're from the future."

"Oh, I'll be living with Sirius as his girlfriend and helping him take care of Harry," Hermione assured her blithely.

"Wait, you'll what?" Sirius looked startled.

"We already told everyone that we were a couple at Halloween, remember?" Hermione told him.

"I thought that was just that night!" he protested.

"So you dumped your girlfriend three days later?" Hermione shook her head. "Sirius, you just became a defacto father. You can't have thought you were just going to take Harry back to your bachelor pad and keep at your hounddog ways. You have responsibilities now. Harry needs a stable home, and a motherly influence. And you can't just bring any woman home to give him that in small doses. Aside from what that rotating cast would do to him, you have no way of knowing if they're a Voldemort Supporter or not!"

"Why can't he go with Alice and -"

Hermione immediately cut him off. "You would abandon your own godson? Just so that you would cavort with random women? You would confirm every one of Lily's doubts about your suitability as a guardian just so that you could sleep around? You would make Alice and Frank take care of _two_ small children just so that you wouldn't have to be bothered? After all the work I put in to keep you from accidentally abandoning him by being sent to Azkaban, you would do it on purpose?"

Sirius immediately looked guilty, and Hermione knew that he had gotten her point. She probably could have let things slide; he was not expecting to become a father this week, and he was still grieving. Alice and Frank would be perfectly fine raising both boys together, as a glance from Alice well showed. However, from their silence, she knew that the Longbottoms realized what she was doing and were going to let her continue.

"No, you're going to approach your Grandfather, and see if he can set you up with a Black property that is suitable for a young boy. You can rent out your flat; that would be a good exercise in real estate for you, and it would make a nice graduation present for Harry in a few years. If you carry on the way you have been, like you're still single and carefree, you give Dumbledore ammunition to overturn your guardianship, and potentially damage Alice's claim, and we _know_ what a bad idea that is."

"I know," Sirius agreed, hanging his head.

"Well, you've already learned a very important lesson," Frank teased him.

"What's that?" Sirius asked.

"Don't argue with your time-traveling girlfriend," he smirked.


	5. Chapter 5

Sirius beamed as Hermione appeared at the back of the crowd. He had been nervous up until that moment (and the less said about Moony casting a body bind on him earlier, the better), but seeing Hermione approach had calmed his fears.

They were doing a hybrid wedding/handfasting, as had become the norm, just like James and Lily had done. Since Hermione had no family "in the know" about magic at this time, his grandfather, Arcturus, was escorting her towards Sirius and the druid. Hermione was wearing a gorgeous creamy white robe in a tighter, more form-fitting style than witches usually did. Sirius thought it was sexy as hell.

Her curly, honey-brown hair was pulled up in some mysterious swirly way that left her neck bare, and showed off the ornate gold and sunstone earrings and necklace she had picked out from the Black family jewels. It would probably sound corny to say that her eyes were sparkling like the gems - it was certainly the kind of thing that Sirius would have said to pick up a bird back in the day - but now he thought it was actually true.

Sirius had been a little blindsided by how quickly Hermione took to him, but finally figured that was a product of her knowing him in her own time. She knew his foibles, like his hotheadedness and his issues with his family, but she also believed in his abilities, even when he wasn't sure of them himself. Her off-handed comment that he look into real estate had been oddly perceptive, and maybe not-so-off-handed, come to think of it.

With the guidance of his grandfather and Augusta, who were training him in politics and being the Lord of a family, he had started going through the Black properties. Many were in decent condition, but could do with some upgrading. Sirius also found that he enjoyed looking through the property market, finding hidden treasures, and bringing out the best in them.

It was kind of like what his father had done with money and stocks, though Sirius had always found his lectures boring. With real estate, however, Sirius had a chance to take his wand to the buildings and bring new life to them. He had a flare for colors and decorating, and Moony was excellent with the household and structural spells. Together, they were fixing up abandoned properties, making good money, and Sirius was having a ball.

And all because Hermione had suggested he do something with his bachelor pad.

She was studying Runes with Arcturus, actually. Sirius had never even known that his grandfather held a Mastery - neither of his parents thought much of education beyond Hogwarts, or work outside of the Ministry - but Arcturus had taken on Hermione as an apprentice. She was flying through her studies, and Arcturus even seemed to be enjoying himself.

Hermione finally reached the circle, and Arcturus kissed her hand before backing away to join Augusta and the boys. Then, accompanied by her maidens - her friends Selena Lovegood and Alice Longbottom - Hermione carefully stepped over the lines of flower and chalk and into the circle. Sirius, bracketed by his own duo of Moony and Frank, copied her.

As the druid began the handfasting ritual, Sirius felt as thought his heart might beat out of his chest with all the love he had. After two years together, Sirius and Hermione were finally getting married. Harry was thriving, growing up with Neville, and Alice and Frank had changed from being Lily's friend and her husband to good friends in their own right. The only thing that could have made this better was if James and Lily were still with them, but Sirius had, with Hermione's help, moved past his grief. Today was a day for joy, and he hated to imagine how all of their lives would have been had things gone differently on that fateful Halloween.

Sirius was so glad he had taken Frank's advice back then, and not argued with his time-traveling girlfriend.


End file.
